


Traces of Light and Weight

by harpydora



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Canon-Typical Violence, Clones, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Machine Consciousness, Mission Fic, Other, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8047240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpydora/pseuds/harpydora
Summary: By Genji's later calculation, it took approximately two minutes and fifty-seven seconds for everything to go to hell.
(Tags/ships will be updated as needed. Updates Wednesdays.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This started because of an off-hand comment my roommate made during a pretty spectacularly awful quickplay match. What was supposed to be a joke has ballooned into a fic about exploring themes of machine personhood. I have no excuse for myself. This is my first fic in the fandom, so I apologize for any lore/characterization errors.
> 
> I have most of the first "arc" finished and have large swathes of the rest planned, so I will hopefully not leave y'all hanging. Will try to upload a chapter a week until I run out of finished fic.
> 
> Thank you tumblr users rebelsix, r--g--b, lukemonsternoises, and tommy-is-hungry for doing beta work. Y'all are awesome. <3

The infiltration was supposed to be simple and quick.

It was a soft target: residential building, no  _ real _ security, occupant was away on some business trip (the details of where and why hadn't been important enough for Genji to recall). Athena had pulled the tip out of the dark web somewhere (again, the details had seemed unimportant at the time), and she'd alerted Winston to the need to act. She recommended a small team to keep their profile low. The data backup they were after was a high-value target, but anything more than a couple of operatives might tip their hand to other interested parties. A full strike team was absolutely out of the question. 

It was a soft target, so when Athena said she could only buy them about five minutes (four minutes and forty-eight seconds) of CCTV blackout, Genji didn't even flinch. "I will have your information in Winston's hands in less than four minutes," he assured her.

By Genji's later calculation, it took approximately two minutes and fifty-seven seconds for everything to go to hell.

*

Genji arrived in London four days before the operation and one day before the rest of the team. His job was simple: case the building, learn the schedule of the guard shifts, and map out which CCTV cameras he would need Athena to take over and in what order to ensure his approach went unnoticed.

The dreary weather of London combined with a persistent layer of smog and grime gave Genji plenty of excuse to wear an effective disguise. He kept himself bundled up in hoodies and baggy cargo pants, and he replaced his face plate with a bulky respirator that covered most of his scarred face. With his swords tucked into a bag slung over one shoulder, he blended in just fine with the other visitors at a nearby hostel.

With enhancements Angela had built into his cybernetic body, he didn't require much in the way of sleep. Keeping a careful eye on their target building (a somewhat squat older building in a disused and outlying part of the city) was trivial. He had gathered all the intel he needed and drafted an approach long before the rest of his companions landed.

Winston arrived a little more than a day before the operation, giving himself plenty of time to set up in the basement of a deserted building on the corner opposite their target. He took his time hooking Athena's remote terminal directly into the utility infrastructure that lay exposed behind a panel of mouldering drywall.

Athena and Winston had selected two other agents based on Genji's initial plan: Tracer would provide a distraction (and support, in a pinch) from the lobby of the target building; less than a block away, Zenyatta would be perched where he could keep a line of sight on Genji's approach. McCree may have been a more obvious choice as a spotter—sharpshooter that he was—but having a skilled healer on site while Mercy was elsewhere made Zenyatta the logical choice. Both of them arrived half a day after Winston.

Five hours before the operation, they met at Winston's temporary base of operations. They executed final checks of their gear, of the plan, of their exit strategy, of their contingencies. Tracer rehearsed lines with Winston's gentle coaching. Zenyatta guided Genji through a brief meditation before they talked over his approach one more time.

"I wonder," Zenyatta murmured once they'd finished talking over the plan, "how difficult it would be to find my way to King's Row. I have been told that the memorial there is quite beautiful."

Genji hadn't seen it—didn't  _ want _ to see the statue the city of London had built to memorialize Mondatta's assassination. But… "There is no need to find your own way," he said, laying a hand on Zenyatta's shoulder. "If we have time afterwards, I will go with you."

An hour before the operation, Winston called for a comms check. By turns, the comm-link in Genji's helmet crackled with Tracer's chirp of, "Tracer here!" followed by, "Winston reporting," and his master's calm, "Zenyatta is here." Softly, he added, "Genji is with you." Then Zenyatta left to quietly assume his watchful perch before everything went into motion.

Ten minutes before the operation, they each activated their trackers and synchronized their chronometers. Tracer scooped up an armful of parcels—part of her disguise and distraction—and flitted up the basement stairs. She left her comm open so Genji and Athena could follow her lead. Genji trailed her a few moments behind, hugging the shadows and slivers of blind spots in the CCTV coverage leading up to their target.

One minute before the operation, Tracer entered the building, tripped, spilled her parcels all over the floor, and began to caterwaul. Her timing was a little early, Genji thought as the comms broadcast her wailing in crystal clarity, but she gave the code-word to kick things off right on time.

Athena hijacked the CCTV system, starting with the camera closest to Genji's right shoulder.

With a chronometer counting down in his visor's HUD, Genji took a few steps back and started scaling the wall. His cybernetic fingers found holds in the concrete that a normal human's would not, and he made quick work of the distance between the ground and his target's window.

He made quick work of the distance between himself and the cluttered interior of the apartment, too. The window's latch was laughably easy to jimmy open, likely having been installed long before even the Omnic Crisis. The unit had no alarms, the tenant had no pets. All was still and dark inside, and Genji had plenty of time to locate what he'd come for.

Without disturbing the clutter, Genji made a bee-line for the desk on the other side of the room. The owner was disorganized and probably a bit absent-minded, but he (or she, or they) kept the corner of the office in some semblance of order. Probably out of necessity for when he worked from home.

Deft hands sifted through the detritus of the poor person's daily professional life until his fingers closed around a slim, nondescript portable drive, no bigger than Genji's index finger. He opened his comm and pressed one end of the drive to his fingertip. "Athena, can you confirm this is it?"

Information buzzed through his sensors for less than a second. "Confirmed, Agent Genji," Athena said.

He picked his way back to the window to make his exit.

Two minutes and three seconds into the mission, Zenyatta spoke in his ear, "Your way is not clear. A taxi has just pulled up to the curb."

Genji glanced out the window; confirmed Zenyatta's statement for himself. The taxi let out two young people. A man and a woman? Two men? Impossible to tell from this angle. They took agonizing seconds to toss cash to the driver, rather than paying with their mobile, but at least they didn't dawdle after the transaction was done. Zenyatta spoke again when they'd disappeared around the corner, "Your way is clear again."

"Thank you, Master," Genji said. He braced himself against the window frame, double-checked that he'd left everything as he'd found it (mostly), and stepped off into the night.

He rolled when he hit the ground, his cybernetic body absorbing the shock of his landing and rendering it completely silent. The momentum of his roll let him hop up to his feet and leap up the side of the neighboring building in a single fluid motion. He trusted Athena to do her part and black out the cameras as he fled the scene.

*

The rendezvous point was nearly three miles away (it wouldn't be safe to return to their starting point), and Tracer managed to beat him there by several minutes. She'd shed her disguise and her parcels somewhere along the way, leaving her in just her standard suit and goggles. She sketched a jaunty wave at him, which he acknowledged with an off-handed wave of his own.

"You weren't joking about getting out of there quick," she said, suddenly at his shoulder.

"And you did not exaggerate how distracting you could be," Genji teased. The banter came so easily these days. More easily than it had during his first term serving with Overwatch. "Where did you learn how to sound so much like a dying whale?"

"Hollywood, love!" Tracer said with a grin. "It's called 'acting,' you know!"

Despite himself, Genji returned her smile behind his visor. "I will be sure to alert the academy of your performance," he said with as much solemnity as he could muster. It was enough to send Tracer into a fit of giggles.

"I'm a regular Meryl Streep, that's me!" she said, striking some pose that Genji thought must have been evocative of whatever actress Tracer was referencing. She dissolved into giggling again, bracing herself with a hand on Genji's shoulder. "Oh, I hate why we're all back together, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss you, love."

"I was not in a good place… before," Genji hedged, humor drained from his voice. "And I agree, it's awful that we are needed once more. But I am glad to be with you again for however long our paths are together."

They stood together in companionable silence after the pronouncement. Suddenly, Tracer switched from just having a hand on his shoulder to pulling him down into a fierce hug. For a heartbeat or two, Genji only stood there, stunned, before he reciprocated. Tracer broke the hug first, wide grin on her face. "Oh, there you go, getting me all emotional!"

"You cried at that video of kittens Winston sent the entire team last week," Genji pointed out, smiling behind his faceplate even though Tracer couldn't see it.

She punched him in the shoulder. "Hush, you! They were adorable."

A few minutes later, Winston finally arrived, huffing and carrying his and Athena's gear in a duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. "All right, let's get that data uploaded to Athena's mainframe."

Tracer took a step back from Genji and appeared at Winston's side to help him set up what he needed for the data transfer. Between the both of them, Athena was ready for the upload in moments, and Genji relinquished the stolen backup with the tiniest amount of relief. With this step, the operation would be complete.

Except…

"Winston, did you see Zenyatta on your way here?" Genji asked.

The scientist glanced up from the makeshift terminal. "No, I thought he would've come back with you since he was your spotter. He's not back yet?" His gaze swiveled around the room as if noticing his surroundings for the first time. A cold lump formed in the back of Genji's throat. "Athena, do you see Zenyatta's locator?" 

"Affirmative," said Athena. "Agent Zenyatta has not left his post. Shall I open his communicator link?"

"Yes!" Genji hissed at the same time that Winston said, "Please."

The comm-link crackled to life, broadcasting the faint sounds of city life at night interspersed with bursts of high-frequency static. "Agent Zenyatta, please report your status," Athena's calm voice intoned. To no avail; the only response was continued static and the sound of distant traffic on the street below.

The lump in Genji's throat grew. Settled in his chest. "Master, if you need assistance please give us some signal," he said. He tried to keep his words even, but the way Tracer's eyebrows drew together in worry told him that he'd failed. He pressed on: "Please let us know if you're all right."

Nothing.

"Athena," Winston said, "did you detect any activity in the area that might be preventing Zenyatta from responding?"

"Negative. I detected no radio chatter, nor were there any signs of a counter operation."

"Obviously something got missed," Genji snapped, though he knew he was being unfair. Still, he didn't apologize. "I will go back for him."

"I'll go with you," Winston said, pushing himself away from his terminal. "If he's been injured or disabled, you'll need help moving him."

"No," said Genji, shaking his head and making a slicing motion with one hand to cut off any protest. "You stay. Finish the uplink. We cannot let this prevent us from completing our mission. I will recover Zenyatta."

Before either of his companions could say anything to the contrary, Genji was gone.

*

Even knowing that something could be wrong, Genji took care to move carefully through the web of slender blind spots in the local CCTV system. He wanted—needed—to make sure that his master was not incapacitated, but he still couldn't afford to be reckless. ( _ The recklessness will come later, when I possibly  have to move an injured Omnic slung over my  shoulder _ , he thought.) After what felt like an agonizing eternity, Genji hauled himself up to the corner of the rooftop that had been Zenyatta's assigned perch for the infiltration.

There was no sign of Zenyatta.

"Master!" Genji called into his comm. "Master, please tell me where you are!"

Less than a second later, tinny and broken, he heard his own words drift back to him from somewhere near his feet.

"Genji?" Tracer asked. He dropped into a crouch and cocked his head, trying to follow where the second sound had come from. "What is it, love? What do you see?"

"Keep talking," he said, almost a growl.

"Sure thing, I think," Tracer agreed. He scoured the rooftop, looking for something,  _ anything _ . "Not sure what about, but I guess that doesn't matter, does it? I mean, it'd be brilliant if you'd tell me why you're wanting me to keep talking to you, Winston and I are getting  _ really _ worried right about now, but I'm just going to follow your lead on this since you wouldn't have asked if—"

"There!" His eyes caught a tiny little spark and Tracer's echo garbled for a moment. His hand whipped out and grabbed the thing. "That is enough, Tracer."

In his palm, he held Zenyatta's communicator. When he swept his gaze over the rooftop again, he found another, slightly larger slug of metal. His blood ran cold. He didn't need to ask Athena for confirmation, but he did so anyway. "Athena, please locate Zenyatta."

"Agent Zenyatta's locator says that he is with you," she said. A beat later: "I'm sorry, Agent Genji. I do not know where he is."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to keep to a weekly update schedule (Wednesdays), but I am a somewhat slow writer so I don't want to make too many promises.
> 
> For something that started based on an off-hand joke, this thing has grown into a bit of a monster. >.>

Any question of whether foul play were involved, vanished once Athena confirmed that the data upload was successful. She checked the hashes against some esoteric table she had pulled from the dark web, and it matched what she expected based on the tip. Only now did Genji pay attention: Athena's shadowy informant a had tipped her off, through a semi-standard channel, about the whispers of research into a possible new God AI.

The urgency with which Athena had organized the mission made more sense now. No one could afford to let such a thing go unchecked, and Overwatch could not allow any such data to fall into the wrong hands.

But the supposed data was garbage—just a collection of saccharin poetry that clumsily ruminated on the nature of the soul—cloned hundreds of times to make it look like a hefty research database backup before it had been encrypted.

The tip had been a honeypot, and they'd gone for it like fools.

"They can't have gotten far," Genji said over his comm-link. "Athena, did you see anything on the CCTV cameras?"

"Nothing, Agent Genji," Athena replied. Her artificial voice sounded sad. A quirk of her code or genuine emotion? Genji shook his head. That was unfair. "I was providing a loop of innocuous activity to the cameras that might have caught anything, but did not monitor the live feed."

Winston's voice rumbled in Genji's ear. "Of course. Whoever set this up, they would know the path you were likely to take. They would know which cameras we were likely to blackout." He growled. "Damn!"

"But who's _they?_ " Tracer cut in. "I mean, I know there's plenty of folks who'd rather see an Omnic like Zenyatta dead as not, but who'd go to this trouble? Setting up something for Athena to find like that? That's not Talon's MO, if I do say so m'self, but they're the only ones I can think of with that kind of clout."

"It is not Talon's standard procedure," said Genji begrudgingly. "But Talon is hardly the only organization that might wish to harm one of Overwatch's agents."

"But most of them don't know Zenyatta is _with_ Overwatch, love," Tracer countered. "He's a newcomer, not one of the old hands like you or me or Winston." He heard her huff out a breath. "I'd say that rules out anyone who's just jonesing to ruin the collective days of the old crew."

"We need more information," Winston said. While Tracer had talked, he had evidently gotten a better hold of his temper. It wasn't difficult to imagine him fidgeting with his glasses. "We're just taking shots in the dark without any kind of clue."

"If we don't act fast, it will be for nothing," Genji snarled. His fingers clenched into a fist around the communicator and locator, crushing them. The comm let out a pitiful squeal before going silent. "Whoever has done this could be gone. Leave the country. And then we'll never find them!"

"Winston's right, love, we don't have a trail or any idea who it is or where they've gone," Tracer said softly. "We need more information. And we need to get out of here. Whoever this is, they know who we are and they know we're here. There's lots of people who'd pay good money to have that kind of intel."

"Then go!" Genji snapped. "Get Winston to safety, do your research, and let me know what you find. I will stay and I will look for Zenyatta in the meantime."

"Genji, I don't think—"

Tracer cut Winston off before he could finish the thought. "Right, love. Sure. We'll get Winston packed up and on his way, and you and I can—"

"No," said Genji, deflating. He couldn't stay angry in the face of Tracer trying to be helpful. "Go with Winston. I can move in ways that you cannot."

"But this is my _hometown_ , love. I've still got contacts here." Her words held just a hint of a whine. She so desperately wanted to be there for him.

"You're more use to me making sure Winston takes care of himself," Genji replied. "He won't listen to anyone else, and you know it."

Winston made a disgruntled noise over the comms but did not disagree. And Tracer didn't, either. Finally, she said, "Right. We'll be in town for another hour and if you need the cavalry… well, you know who to call."

Genji closed his eyes for a moment, grateful. "Yes, if I need you, I will call."

When he opened them, he scanned his surroundings again. If there were any sign of what had happened to his master, he _would_ find it.

*

There were no leads. The only detail Genji found on that loathsome rooftop had been a tiny scorch mark that smelled faintly of ozone when he unlatched his faceplate to press his nose to it. There was no sort of utility equipment that could have sparked and caused the acrid burn, which left it a likely remnant of whatever had happened to Zenyatta. But there were any number of weapons which used electricity for power or for ammunition, and almost all of them would be available in a city as large and diverse as London was. It left Genji with virtually nothing to work with.

So he started thinking it through from the other end as he prowled through the streets. He didn't know how, and he didn't know who, so that left _why?_ Why would someone want to kidnap Zenyatta? What did they stand to gain?

There were always slavers—human, Omnic, or both—but he discarded that idea out of hand. Slavers tended to show less finesse, and this had certainly been a setup.

He agreed with Tracer's judgement that this did not match Talon's signature flair for destruction and chaos. Again, there was too much concern for subtlety, and Talon was not typically shy about taking credit for its actions.

Mentally, he ran down the list of every terrorist organization he knew: Humanity Now, International Liberation League, Atlassian Conquest, the Peacemakers… The list went on. None of them fit. By their nature, the organizations wanted to sow fear and distrust. Snatching a lone Omnic quietly in the night wouldn't accomplish that.

But he was getting caught back up in the _who_ again, when he had nothing to guide him in any particular direction. He snarled in frustration, putting perhaps a little too much force into the jump to take him to a neighboring rooftop. He landed without a sound, but he had to roll into a tumble before picking up his pace again. _Damn it!_

_Why?_ Why would anyone want to take Zenyatta without making it obvious what they'd done?

No matter how Genji wracked his brain, he could not come up with an answer.

*

He stayed in London for another three days, bringing his total time there to just shy of a week.

Though he lacked the home-turf advantage that Tracer would have had, the criminal underbelly of the city held no secrets. For all that Genji had done in his youth to shirk any and all Shimada-gumi responsibilities, he had still absorbed plenty of knowledge on how to be effectively intimidating and dig up leads when none seemed apparent. He ditched the disguise he'd used when he first arrived, instead leaning on the imposing silhouette he cut against the night sky when his visor glowed green.

His list of questions was short, to the point, and often delivered with his wakizashi shaving the topmost layer of skin off the throat of whomever he was querying. He worked his way through seedy watering holes known for smuggler activity, through clandestine meetings in abandoned warehouses, through every supposed safe-house he could find. The answers were all the same:

No, no one new has shown their face in town ( _except you_ hung unspoken in the air).

No, there haven't been any rumors of any major anti-Omnic actions ( _no more than normal, anyway)_.

No, no one has been moving Omnics around on the down-low ( _besides, the only good Omnic is a dead one, amirite?_ ).

The last response tended to earn its speaker a broken limb.

In a fit of desperation, he cobbled together a different disguise and went back to the building they had targeted. Trying to be the opposite of the vengeful specter he'd been playing before, he approached the neighbors of the unit he'd burgled. The unit had been empty until a few weeks ago, and no one had seen the new tenant after the movers had set the place up.

With each minute, each hour, each _day_ , Genji felt his chances of finding anything useful slipping further and further away. The trail had never been warm to begin with, and he understood too well the diminishing returns of trying to catch the scent of anything the longer he tried.

"Athena, do you read me?" he said into his comm.

"I read you, Agent Genji. Do you require assistance?"

"No. I need to return to the Watchpoint." He didn't elaborate. Vocalizing that he'd found nothing would only reignite the smouldering coals of shame in his chest, and Athena was hardly so stupid as to need him to say it.

"Understood. I will send you information once the extraction has been arranged. Do you require anything else?"

_Yes, I require the ability to find my master and make sure he is safe!_ But again, there was no point to saying it aloud. "No," he said. "Thank you, Athena."

True to her word, Athena forwarded a time and coordinates to Genji's HUD. In less than two hours' time, Genji was watching the sprawling London skyline grow ever smaller in the dingy window of the tiny shuttle that Athena had sent for him.

*

The shuttle landed at Watchpoint: Gibraltar in the wee hours of the morning. There were lights on in Winston's lab, but the rest of the base looked deceptively serene from the shuttle's approach.

Winston greeted Genji as he disembarked, looking rumpled and harried. In one hand, he cradled a datapad that had a stream of incomprehensible symbols scrolling up it faster than Genji could track. The way the fur stuck up on one side of his head was a solid indicator that Tracer had managed to bully him into getting _some_ modicum of sleep lately. Which was more than Genji could say for himself.

"Welcome home," Winston mumbled. The words were broken by a half-smothered yawn. It wasn't home, but Genji did not correct him. "I'm sorry that your investigation in London didn't turn up much, but Athena and I have been busy here working the electronic angle while you were out." He thrust the datapad at Genji's chest.

Genji took it, and the screen flashed from whatever running function Winston had been monitoring to a world map. One by one, certain cities lit up. Which each new point of light, a line appeared between the new one and the last. Something like a web emerge, though if there was a pattern, Genji could not see it. "What is this?"

"I have done some backtracing on the source of the tip I received, Agent Genji," Athena said. The points of light flickered as she spoke. "The originators were very careful with their metadata, spoofing legitimate data where they could and stripping out the rest. Much of this is standard practice for the type of informants who reach out to us."

The words didn't make much sense, but Genji had never been particularly interested in the vagaries of cyberspace on his best days, let alone when he had barely slept. "So?"

"The people who set up that honeypot were good," Winston said, "but nobody is perfect. They know enough about how to make something appear legitimate, but it can't stand up to Athena's hardest scrutiny."

"Thank you, Winston. It's true, I did not scrutinize the initial data because there was nothing to send up any red flags, and for that I am sorry. This source is now marked as not to be trusted."

Genji waved his hand in a 'get-on-with-it' motion. "That's fine. Future precautions are all well and good, but what does it have to do with _this_?" He gestured at the datapad.

"Winston and I were able to track the data back through numerous proxies to what we believe to be its source," Athena said, unperturbed by Genji's impatience. The points of light blinked and turned blue as she sketched out the network of machines the data passed through to get to her, but in reverse. The last light to blink on was in Prague. "We believe this server was the source of the information. I have researched the registered owner of the domain, and it is a dummy corporation."

"A dead end, then," Genji said, shoulders slumping.

"Not quite." Winston reached over and tapped an icon on the top of the datapad. The screen changed, a scan of some official-looking document written in Czech and a scan of the title page of a book appearing side-by-side. "Have a look."

Genji held the datapad closer to his face. He didn't speak or read Czech, but after a moment's consideration he noticed exactly what Athena and Winston wanted him to see. The registered name of the corporation matched the name of the publisher on the book's title page. "So… someone created a publishing company? How does this help us?"

Winston huffed out an exasperated breath. " _Look_ at the title!"

He did.

"Oh."

The company in question had published _Traces of Light and Weight_ : the book of poetry that made up the data dump Genji had retrieved when Zenyatta was taken.

"Go get some sleep, Genji," Winston said, taking the datapad from his slack fingers. "We'll be doing a debriefing in about three hours, then we're off to Prague."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're closing in on the end of the first "arc" of this dumb monstrosity. Next week's update will be the end of part 1, and then I'll be taking a week off to do some personal stuff and then we'll move on to act 2.
> 
> Many thanks again to my lovely beta readers. Y'all are fantastic. <3

0530 came at once too quickly and not quickly enough. As exhausted as Genji was, the last thing on his mind was sleep. But he knew that he needed to be as close to his best as possible, so he forced several of his systems into rest mode and dozed fitfully until his internal chronometer rousted him.

He picked his way toward Winston's lab—while Winston had never stated explicitly that was where the debriefing was to take place, he'd never once used the former Strike Commanders' meeting rooms in the time since the recall. Like he thought the room was tainted somehow, or maybe because he didn't feel like he was an adequate enough leader to use them. Given his staunchly scientific nature, it was probably the second option. The thought made Genji snort in derision. Already, Winston was doing a better job of holding things together than Morrison had at the end.

A handful of people already milled around inside Winston's lab when Genji arrived: Winston himself was shamefacedly stuffing empty peanut butter jars into a black garbage bag; Lena perched on his desk and chirped offers of assistance that he declined; Jesse shuffled groggily through the motions of brewing a pot of coffee; from one corner, Bastion raised a mechanical hand in greeting.

That caught Lena's attention, and she hopped off Winston's desk and threw her arms around his chest. "Oh, you look terrible," she said, tone despondent.

Genji hadn't been aware that he looked anything other than like a cybernetic warrior on a critical rescue mission, so he just shook his head and briskly returned her hug. "Thanks. You look too alert for the time of morning."

The cowboy raised a hand holding a ceramic mug in faux-salute. "Hear, hear. Ain't that what I've been sayin' for _how_ many years?"

Lena pulled away from Genji and hopped over to Jesse's side to bump him in the ribs with her shoulder. " _Someone_ has to keep spirits high when the coffee's not ready yet." That drew a tired chuckle from Jesse, and he bent to lay a fond peck on the crown of her head.

"And for that we're all mighty grateful, darlin'," he drawled. The coffee began to drip into the carafe in front of him, and Jesse turned away to eye the liquid as it brewed.

Under other circumstances—better circumstances—the easy camaraderie would have warmed Genji's heart. Now, it just irritated. His internal chronometer read 0537. To Winston, he said, "We are all here now, are we not? It is past time to begin this."

Startled by Genji's brusque tone, Winston finished tying off the black garbage bag and shoved it under one of the tables where it wouldn't be so obvious. "We're waiting for one more person to dial in from the field," he said. "With the sensitive nature of this mission, I thought it'd be best if we included Angela. In case…" He didn't put words around the scenarios in which Angela's expertise would be useful or necessary. It wasn't as if Genji hadn't already thought of them all and more. "Anyway, Angela's been a bit tied up with a minor emergency, but she should be online any minute now."

"By 'minor emergency' she means Reinhardt threw out his back again," Lena muttered under her breath. Bastion made a low _bweep_ of agreement. This spawned a flurry of chatter about the mountain of a man and his inability to accept any sort of limits. Genji leaned against a wall and did his best to tune it out.

Thankfully, one of Athena's screens flashed Angela's portrait and the words _Incoming Transmission_ , and Winston scrambled to hit the "accept" button. The portrait was replaced with Angela's tired but smiling face in real-time, complete with bags under her eyes and a comical smudge of dirt across her chin. "Sorry, sorry, Mercy is reporting in," she said.

"Thank you for making the time for this," Winston said. "I know it's short notice, but… well, we could use your help."

"That's what I'm here for." She scrubbed at her chin with one hand, which only served to smear the dirt around uselessly. Her hand fell to her side when she realized the cause was lost. "I read the file you sent." To Genji, she said, "I'm so sorry."

"Do not be sorry," Genji replied, suddenly fierce. "We will retrieve Zenyatta and there will be nothing to be sorry _for_."

Winston stepped in to outline what they did and did not know. Most of it was a rehash of the discussion he and Athena had had with Genji after he landed, but there were some nuggets of information that were new. The IP address of the information source was in a building also owned by the publisher. Some of the nearby residents had noticed unusual activity in the past few days, but the local law enforcement had not yet seen the need to get involved. While the bulk of _Traces of Light and Weight_ seemed like ham-handed stabs at being poetic, Athena was now convinced that there was some sort of coded message to the text, and she was dedicating as many CPU cycles as she could spare to deciphering it.

What they didn't know far outweighed what they did. At such short notice, they didn't know what to expect when they landed. They still had no firm idea who was behind this, though Athena was still working the paper trail to peel back the layers on the dummy corporations. Even so, the chances of anything turning up before they left were slim-to-none. They had no idea why Zenyatta had been taken, what condition he might be in, or if he was even in Prague at all.

As the stack of unknowns laid out on the table grew higher, Genji's stomach sank.

"Well, Commander, is this s'posed t' be a snatch-n'-grab or're we s'posed t' be doin' recon?" Jesse slurred over the top of his coffee mug. The carafe, Genji noticed, was already half-empty. Had they really been discussing things that long? Or was Jesse just that desperate for caffeine? Genji checked his chronometer. 0611. Damn. A little bit of both, then.

It took Winston a few beats before he realized that Jesse had been addressing _him_. "Er, well," he stammered, squaring his shoulders and adjusting his spectacles. "As much as I'd love to do some reconnaissance, that really isn't in the cards right now. One of our agents is missing, and this is the place we're most likely to find him."

Bastion emitted a few _whirrs_ and _clicks_ followed by a long whistle. "Yes, Agent Bastion," Athena said, "that is correct. The focus of this mission is extraction, but if anything turns up that is obviously useful, do what you must. Just remember that Agent Zenyatta is the priority here." Bastion made a cheerful-sounding _beep_ , likely thanking Athena for translating for him.

"Are there any other questions?" Winston asked, surveying the room with no small amount of anxiety. When no one said anything, he nodded. "Good. The shuttle will leave at 0645. We're meeting Agent Mercy in Prague."

*

Angela—Mercy, now that the mission was underway—was not the only person waiting for them when they landed. Genji hadn't paid much attention to what had called Reinhardt, Mercy, and Soldier: 76 to the field, but their work had obviously been completed. Reinhardt had been shipped back to the Watchpoint, but 76 had evidently _insisted_ on following Mercy on her next run.

Genji would've found the situation comical if he'd managed to get any rest and his master weren't missing. Instead, the posturing was just frustrating and sad. Who did 76 think he was fooling, when he interfered with Overwatch operations with such a heavy hand? But Winston seemed almost grateful for 76's addition to the team, so Genji held his tongue.

In contrast to the operation that had started this, the building was not a soft target. Maybe Genji should have been grateful for 76's presence, too.

There were guards, and cameras, and physical security measures (bars on the windows, heavy electronic locks on the doors). Athena had provided some intelligence on schedules and headcounts, but there'd been no time to study guard movements. No time to compare the blueprints of the building to what could be glimpsed from the outside.

The basic strategy was this: Genji would lead the charge and disable as many of the physical countermeasures that he could while Winston used his Tesla cannon to incapacitate the guards. Mercy would come in next, with 76, McCree, and Tracer watching her six. Bastion would be the anchor of the group, laying down suppressing fire as needed. Through a complex series of _bwips_ and _beeps_ that Athena translated, he even expressed a willingness to engage tank mode if the situation got dire.

76 scoffed once the plan had been outlined. "We're walking into a trap." For a man who claimed to be a simple soldier, Genji thought he had far too much trouble following others' orders.

Winston nodded. "Oh, yes, of course. But we _know_ this is a trap, now. That puts us ahead of where we were last time."

"It puts you exactly where the enemy wants you," snapped 76 with enough force that even Mercy, McCree, and Tracer all turned to look at him. "It's irresponsible. You're risking an entire team for one Omnic all based on intel that is definitely leading you into a trap."

McCree rumbled, "Hey, now…" His prosthetic hand fell heavily on Genji's shoulder.

Only then did Genji realize he'd taken two steps toward 76 and let his hand drop to the hilt of his wakizashi. With a nearly Herculean effort, Genji forced his hands into fists at his sides.

Sensing that 76 did not quite grasp the gravity of the tension, Mercy inserted herself in the center of the group. "This is a risk we are all taking willingly," she said. "And gladly, for my part."

"S'right," said Tracer, hands on her hips. "We can't just sit around when there's a chance we could get Zenyatta back. No man left behind, right?"

"No agent left behind," Winston agreed solemnly. "I appreciate your… expertise, Soldier. I can't tell you how glad I am you'll be helping to watch our backs because you're right, this is dangerous."

It was clear that 76 remained skeptical by the set of his shoulders, but he said nothing more.

"Right, then! Comms check!" Winston called. Everyone sounded off over their comm-links, their call-signs echoing in Genji's ear one after another. They turned on their locators. Synchronized their chronometers. Performed final gear checks.

Fifteen minutes later, it was go-time.

*

To Winston and Athena's credit, it took a full seven minutes before this operation went to hell, which was more than double how long it had taken the previous infiltration to go sour. Maybe next time, they would make it to a whole quarter of an hour before things spiraled out of control. If there _was_ a next time. Genji adjusted his grip on his wakizashi as he deflected another burst of automatic gunfire. They had to make it out of this for there to _be_ a next time.

At the rear of their strike team, Bastion let out a terrified _tweep_ , which was followed by a burst of blaster fire from Tracer's twin pistols. "They're going for Bastion!" she shouted over the comms. "Need some backup!"

"On it!" growled Winston. The quarters were too close for him to effectively use his jump pack, but their adversaries found it difficult to argue with a 600 lb. gorilla muscling his way through their ranks. Before he reached Bastion and Tracer, Winston tossed out a barrier projector to provide the pair some cover until he could reach them.

The protective dome sprang into life over Bastion, who now sported a scorch mark on the side of his head and two other scorch marks on his chest. Tracer had leapt forward to disable one of the attackers trying to flank the Omnic, but Genji caught the flare of another attacker engaging some sort of electrical discharge weapon. No time to shout a warning. He lunged forward, slicing the hamstring of a guard is he passed, and flung three shuriken at Bastion's other assailant. The attacker slumped to the ground with at least one of the shuriken hitting from their throat.

Sluggishly, Bastion initiated his self-repair routine long enough to patch damage he had sustained to his joints. That done, he shifted back into recon mode just as Winston and Genji made their ways to his location.

Acrid ozone stench stung Genji's sinuses, even through his faceplate. "They're trying to disable Bastion so they can take him," he said over his comm. "Like Zenyatta. Be careful."

Between Bastion, Winston, and himself, they cleared the area of ambushers quickly. Then they ushered Bastion forward, where 76 and Tracer could better cluster around him. Winston refreshed the barrier and left to go assist McCree and Mercy, who had drawn the ire of a different set of hired goons.

Certain that his fellow agents had the situation in hand, Genji slipped through the chaos like the ghost of a whisper. With all of their enemies' focus on the others, he slid through corridors unnoticed. All of the doors were locked, with no indication of what might lie behind any of them. Genji swore under his breath, soft enough that the comm did not pick it up and broadcast it to the team.

_There is no option but to try them all,_ he thought. He grit his teeth and started working on the locks. Most of them appeared to be purely mechanical, rudimentary deadbolts that did not have many tumblers. After peeking into a couple of the rooms they protected, Genji realized they held nothing of interest. All of the ones he opened were barely the size of closets, with a chair and a desk and a lamp for illumination.

No signs of life. No signs of his master.

Finally, near the end of the corridor, Genji found a door protected not with a standard deadbolt, but with an electronic card reader. _Ah, now this is promising._

The card reader would not be fooled by simple means, but Genji had been literally built for this sort of infiltration. He held his palm up to the scanner, letting his cybernetics work to find an RFID code that would allow him entry. It took a few seconds, but the light soon flashed green and Genji was able to push the door wide open.

It took several moments for Genji to understand what he saw. At first, his mind refused to resolve the image into anything other than broad strokes of light and dark. He realized, distantly, that a lesser person would be sick. That an even lesser person than that would find nothing wrong at all.

The room was not much bigger than the others on that corridor, but rather than being sparsely furnished, this room was jammed with floor-to-ceiling shelving stuffed full of stripped-down Omnic parts. Each piece had been cleaned, wrapped in plastic, stacked, and catalogued with clinical precision. One shelf contained nothing but left arms. Another held a bin full of ocular sensors and still another was dedicated to articulated grasping digits of various sizes.

"Things're gettin' a mite heated in here," McCree drawled over the comms, snapping him out of his shocked reverie. "Looks like the local cops might be headed our way."

_Damn!_ Genji's gaze swept the room. There was too much here, too many things that could possibly have been from—

_No._

Whoever had taken his master, they couldn't have chopped him up for parts. They'd gone to too much trouble, and then gone to even greater lengths to lure out Overwatch's other Omnic member.

Something caught his attention from the edge of his field of view: a datapad laying face-down on one of the shelves.

"Understood," he said into his comm. "I will see you all at the rendezvous point."

He snatched the datapad and made his exit.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus concludes the first arc! I have probably about half of the next arc already written (plus some snippets for at least one side-story that will take place concurrently but from Winston's perspective), so don't worry, this train is NOT stopping. However, I fibbed last time because I actually won't be updating for another two weeks because of personal stuff (honeymoon and work stuff and deadlines for my origfic).
> 
> If you want to keep up with me wailing a lot about all the things in the meantime, follow me on tumblr @ surl-tesh-echer.tumblr.com My blog is mostly Overwatch/Voltron with text posts sobbing about editing.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! I'll see you all again on October 26!

It took four days after their return for Genji to finally grow too exhausted to stay upright. The datapad was not the only thing they retrieved from Prague: Tracer had recovered a couple of things that looked to be Omnic parts, but did not belong to any model that Genji had ever seen; McCree had stolen a laptop.

Genji huddled in Winston's lab, fetching whatever Winston needed: water, food, coffee, a different datapad, a new stylus. All while he and Athena worked to crack the encryption on the two electronic devices and analyze the strange Omnic parts. Lena flitted around the lab, too, but after both Winston and Genji ignored her quiet pleas for them to _stop, get some rest, you're no good to Zenyatta if you collapse,_ she kept mostly to herself.

A part of Genji felt guilty for that. He knew that Lena just wanted to make sure no one else was claimed by their failure. He knew it and yet all he could do was ignore her exhortations. There could be rest for him when they'd found out what happened to Zenyatta, or when he died.

Of course, that was easier said than done. By the fourth day, it had already been nearly a week since Genji's last sleep cycle; even Winston had been succumbing to the need for cat-naps every few hours. No matter how impressive Angela's designs for his cybernetic enhancements were, even she could not eliminate his need for sleep entirely.

When Genji swayed late in the evening, he realized too late that it was the opening Lena had been waiting for. She enlisted Jesse's help to haul Genji bodily between the two of them to his quarters and deposit him in his bed. Jesse's fingers made quick work of removing his swords while Lena set herself to tucking him in like a child.

He tried to protest, but Lena stopped him with a gentle press of her lips to his forehead. "Hush, love. You're not any good to Zenyatta if you don't get some rest," she said.

"Athena don't need sleep, and she's got a handle on things for now," Jesse added. "And if anythin' comes up, y'all'll be the first ones to know, all right?" He gave Genji's knee a reassuring pat with his organic hand.

The words were on the tip of his tongue, he just needed a little more time, they just needed to push a little further and they'd hit on what they needed, he _knew_ it. But sleep's insidious fingers had already claimed him before his friends had even shut off his light.

*

Athena pulled him out of his restless slumber with a repetitive chiming in his ear. "Agent Genji. Agent Genji, I require your assistance. Agent Genji."

He sat up and made a waving motion in no particular direction. The chiming ceased, but Athena's words did not. "Please come to the western gate, Agent Genji. The perimeter sensors have been tripped, and I require your assistance with them."

_Perimeter sensors…?_ Confused, Genji asked, "Athena, is this not a better task for Winston, or someone with the knowledge of how to repair them?"

"The sensors are not malfunctioning," Athena said.

"Not mal—do you mean there are intruders at the western gate?" Genji's mind raced through a myriad of scenarios; it wasn't as if the Watchpoint were exactly top-secret, so it wouldn't be difficult for the organization that had been besting Overwatch to just decide to bring the fight to their door. He checked his chronometer; it was almost 0045.

"Not exactly. I have also alerted Winston of the situation, but I feel that you are uniquely qualified to assist." She paused. "Please, Agent Genji. Meet Winston at the western gate."

Even if she hadn't been pleading, Genji was too curious to ignore the request now. He slung himself out of his bunk and tied his swords to his back before making his way out of his quarters.

The western gate lay on the opposite end of the Watchpoint campus from where Genji had been staying, but his silent strides devoured the distance quickly. A few hundred yards from their destination, he saw Winston loping in the gate's direction with a single-minded purpose. He hadn't taken the time to don any of his armor, his jump packs, or grab his Tesla cannon, which made Genji feel a little better about his decision to arm himself.

"Yo," Genji called when he reached earshot. He slowed his pace to match Winston's gait. "What's going on?"

"We have… visitors," Winston huffed.

_Visitors_. Not _intruders_. There seemed no point in asking for details when the western gate loomed above them. The perimeter sensors were all set up a hundred yards out to catch anyone (or anything) on approach, before they reached the actual walls of the Watchpoint. However, they didn't have to get that far outside before they saw their visitors.

Two figures huddled together in the chilly night, leaning against one another as they shuffled in tandem slowly toward the gate. In the stark glare of the floodlights that illuminated the approach, it was difficult for Genji not to cringe at what he saw.

Both figures were wrapped in dirty and tattered hospital gowns. The one on the left was a man, likely in his late twenties, with brown skin marred with hideous bruises and lacerations covering his knees and feet. His hair had been brutally and unevenly shaved, and he sported a long string of sutures along the base of his skull. He leaned heavily on the other figure: an Omnic with half of his cranial plating missing and gouges in the metal at his own knees and feet.

Genji's brain refused to comprehend what he saw, so Winston was the first to speak. "Zen—Zenyatta? Is that you?"

Both the Omnic and the man swiveled their heads toward the sound, like flowers growing toward the sun. The man smiled, though it was obvious that the expression pained him. The Omnic lacked the equipment to smile, but Genji was so familiar with Zenyatta's body language that he knew the tilt of his head for what it was.

As one, the pair exclaimed, "Genji! Winston!" They both tried to rush forward, but the man's knees gave out. Zenyatta did his best to keep the man from tumbling to the ground.

His mind finally catching up with events, Genji lunged forward and hooked the man's free arm over his shoulder. Between his support and Zenyatta's, no one's face became intimately acquainted with the dirt.

"Master, what _happened_?" Genji asked. "Where have you been? I—we were so worried!"

The man shook his head. "I do not know, exactly. It is… difficult to say."

"But I am sorry to have worried you," Zenyatta said, picking up where the man left off. "If we could have escaped any more quickly, I promise we would have come home to you sooner."

"We need to get you back to the infirmary," Winston said. "Angela can have a look at you. _Both_ of you." To Zenyatta, he said, "We can at least get some of the superficial damage patched up and get a cover for your…" He gestured at his own head. "Come on, let me carry your friend."

Zenyatta and Genji shifted the man onto Winston's back, piggy-back style. With the man no longer a concern, Genji shouldered his master's weight instead. The Omnic's metal limbs were icy to the touch, and Genji could feel the precarious way in which Zenyatta tried to hold himself upright.

"Master, I have you," he whispered. Somehow he managed to force the words out around the lump in his throat. "You're here, you're safe. I have you." As many questions as Genji had, holding his master so close only filled him with relief. Zenyatta was safe now, and anything else could wait until after he'd been seen to.

Winston muttered something into his comm. Probably asking Athena to summon Angela to meet them in the infirmary. Genji was so focused on trying to make it out that he almost missed it when Zenyatta responded to him. "We thought we wouldn't see you again," his master said. The words made a tangled knot of Genji's insides.

"I was worried I wouldn't see you again, either." Genji shifted his grip on Zenyatta, tugged his master closer, tried to ignore the way Zenyatta's footsteps fumbled with the admission. He took in a deep breath and focused on the path immediately before him. "I'm glad we were both wrong."

*

Under Angela's watchful eye, Winston laid the mystery man out on one of the infirmary beds. "We will take good care of you," she told him, gently patting his hand. "Do not worry, you are safe now."

The man smiled up at her. "I know. Thank you, Dr. Ziegler." He let his eyes fall closed.

Winston and Angela froze for a moment, startled at the man's words. Genji found the stranger's familiarity odd, too, but Zenyatta remained unperturbed at his side. His master had yet to relinquish his grip on Genji despite no longer trying to remain standing, a development that held Genji's interest far better than a stranger who had been travelling with his master knowing Angela's name.

Once she completed an initial examination and set the stranger up with a low-grade biotic field, Angela turned to the bed on which Genji and Zenyatta sat. "I need you to give us a little space," she said to Genji. "Just for a moment, so I can examine him, too."

Genji turned his head so he could see Zenyatta in more than just the edges of his vision. The idea of leaving his master's side, even to make room for Angela to do her job, rankled him, but Zenyatta just nodded and shifted his arm to let Genji move. "Go," he said, "sit with Danaus for the moment. I will be fine." Not _I am fine_.

Reluctantly, Genji nodded. The stranger—Danaus—lay peacefully on the other bed, the biotic field already starting to soothe away the horrific bruises and knit together the lacerations. His face was smooth, as if in deep slumber, but his eyes opened when Genji approached. A smile (not so pained, this time) lit up his features. He reached out, grasped Genji's hand in one of his own. His skin was smooth and cool to the touch.

"Genji!" rasped Danaus. "I… I thought I would never see you again."

_Again?_ Genji's faceplate hid the way his eyebrows shot up in confusion and surprise. "You are safe now. You and my master escaped and found your way here." He tried to keep his voice calm and modulated. For some reason, Zenyatta wanted him to sit with this man, and he suspected strongly that it would disappoint his master if Genji upset him. "Thank you. For whatever your part was in bringing him back to me."

Behind him, he heard Angela hiss as if in sympathy. He winced and kept his attention on Danaus.

The man in front of him cringed like he'd been slapped. A low keening escaped his throat, the sound so full of anguish that Genji thought his heart might break for this poor, tortured man. _What sort of horrors has he endured, to make a sound like that?_ And, distantly, _how many of those horrors did they visit on Zenyatta?_

Genji gripped Danaus's hand and tried to make vaguely soothing noises to calm him down. "You're safe, you're safe, you're safe," he repeated like a mantra.

Danaus clutched at Genji's fingers like they were a lifeline as he curled in on himself. "Oh, I understood," he wailed, "I understood this would happen. But I did not realize it would _hurt_ so much!" Fat tears rolled down his cheeks as he spoke. "Is this how you felt when you first came to Nepal?"

The room fell silent save for the sound of Danaus's unreserved sobbing. Of course, Genji's time in Nepal was hardly a secret to anyone currently in the room, but… "You talk of it like you were there," Genji said flatly.

"He was, in a way," Zenyatta finally spoke. "This may be difficult to accept, but the facility where I was taken was… an experimental lab of some kind. As I am sure that Dr. Ziegler can see, my—my primary memory banks and my personality processor have been." He stopped. Took a moment to collect himself.

Danaus responded to Zenyatta's pause by taking in a shuddering breath of his own. He was the one who continued, shakily, "They built me. And gave me a copy of his mind." The hand not clutching at Genji's went to the base of his skull. The sutures. A remnant of whatever process their captors had used. "I remember you, Genji. I remember the days we would pass together as you learned to quiet your mind. I remember how upset you were when I refused to let you answer the Overwatch recall alone."

Through the tears, Danaus smiled. "I am sorry. I know that you do not know me, that I have only existed for a handful of days at best. I understand that. But I did not realize how much it would hurt to have someone who is so important treat me like the stranger that I am."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Winston asked, gently.

"I was stripped of my Omnic orbs when I was taken," said Zenyatta, "and Danaus needed medical attention that I cannot give without them. It seemed more important to take care of that first."

"If… If your mind is a copy of my master's," Genji began, keeping his focus on the man in front of him, "why is your name Danaus? Shouldn't you believe your name to also be Tekhartha Zenyatta?"

Danaus's smile grew sad. "I do feel like that is my name, but it is fairly obvious between the two of us—" he gestured at the other bed with his free hand "—which one has the strongest claim. I did not want to carry the designation our captors gave us, so we decided that I would call myself Tekhartha Danaus."

"Oh, I see," said Angela after a moment's consideration. "Because you dreamt you were a butterfly, yes?"

Genji glanced over his shoulder, confused. "What?"

" _Danaus plexippus_ ," Winston supplied with a slight smile. "The genus and species of the monarch butterfly."

"Yes," said Danaus. "Yes, exactly."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY SO now that this has all happened, I can tell the story about how this fic got started. I was in a pretty spectacularly awful quickplay match where I was playing Zenyatta. We were attacking the first point on Temple of Anubis and it was going really poorly and I got separated from the rest of the team and summarily DESTROYED by an enemy Genji and Zenyatta.
> 
> My roommate, bless him, made an off-hand joke about a Zenyatta/Genji/Zenyatta sandwich or something like that, and we started joking back and forth about it until the end of the match (we lost). Then my brain was like "How would that work? Why would there be TWO Zenyattas? What would the ramifications of this be?" And so a silly joke has become this monster of a fic that I've written almost 20,000 words of so far and it's still going because I'm incapable of just writing silly porn and have to make things complicated. -_-


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops! Sorry for being a little late. Personal life is mildly crazy still, but we should be back to regular updates now because my deadline will be done by the time next Wednesday rolls around. This is the first part of the second "arc" of this story, which will be a bit longer than the first arc. Anyway, enjoy!

There wasn't a lot that Angela could do to repair Zenyatta's missing cranial casing, but her biotics managed to patch the myriad smaller injuries to his chassis. She quickly molded a plastic cover to keep his internal systems covered as a stopgap, but it would require an actual engineer to fix properly. Both of them submitted to being scanned in greater depth once the initial biotic dose had done its job. At 0230 she gave them a clean bill of physical health.

"It's truly remarkable," she said to Danaus, "because I see nothing on this scan to indicate that you are anything but a fairly average human male. Other than a denser-than-average skeleton and a few odd spikes in your brain activity, I mean."

Danaus shook his head. "I believe the only way to tell would require exploratory surgery at the incision site. Which you will have to forgive me if I decline, Dr. Ziegler." He flashed a small smile, but Genji noticed that it did not reach his eyes.

Angela's eyebrows shot up in horror. "I would never! You've certainly been through enough. I would love to schedule some more tests with you, of course, but nothing so barbaric."

"Ah, apologies, I did not mean to insinuate…" Danaus sighed. "I am just tired in ways I could not have conceived of, and that attempt at humor was not my best."

"I believe it would be in all of our interests for us to retire for the night," Zenyatta said. "Come, brother." He offered his hand to Danaus, who used it to lever himself off the bed. Though Danaus no longer bore any obvious signs of abuse, his movements were stiff and unnatural. A side-effect, Genji supposed, of only having been born in the last week or so.

After a moment's hesitation, Genji insinuated himself at Danaus's side, slinging one of the man's arms over his shoulders. "You can stay in my quarters," Genji said. "I think you'll find my bed will be better for you than Zenyatta's straw mats."

"You don't have to do that," said Winston. "We've still got plenty of space, if you want to have your own room."

"Then could we take one of the officers' quarters?" Genji asked, startling himself with the suggestion. "I mean, one of the ones with a suite. I don't think Zenyatta or Danaus should be left alone right now, and my quarters are only meant for one person." It was as much for his own benefit as for Danaus and Zenyatta; the idea of letting Zenyatta out of his sight had no appeal, and he suspected Danaus would appreciate not being left alone.

"Yes, of course," Winston said. "Take any one that you like. Athena will make sure you can get in."

"Affirmative," Athena said through one of the infirmary's terminals. "Though I will ask that Danaus submit to a handprint scan for the purposes of allowing him access."

"Certainly," Danaus said. "But… Can it wait until after I have rested?"

"Yes, Danaus." Athena's icon pulsed on the terminal screen. "I recommend the quarters in the southern block, near Winston's lab. This will have the widest variety of amenities, and the proximity to the lab will be convenient when Agent Mercy schedules subsequent tests."

Genji stiffened, which elicited a startled interrogative noise from Danaus. Zenyatta rested a hand on Danaus's shoulder to still him. "Were those not the Strike Commander's quarters?" Genji asked in the vague direction of Athena's icon.

"Affirmative, Agent Genji. Those are the Strike Commander's quarters, but Winston is currently choosing not to occupy them."

"It's not worth moving everything when the lab is just fine," Winston grumbled with the weariness of someone who has had the same argument a thousand times. "If you don't mind my experiments next door, you're welcome to stay there for as long as you need to."

"Thank you, Commander," Genji said with a quick bow of his head.

*

Angela and Winston stayed in the infirmary as Zenyatta, Danaus, and Genji made their way to their temporary quarters, which was just as well. There were so many questions that needed answers and neither Zenyatta nor his human double seemed up to the task of doing much of anything, let alone answering queries about their time in captivity.

Back in the cool night air, Danaus began to shiver. Genji swore. "We will find some clothing for you after you've gotten rest."

"After we have  _ all _ gotten rest," Zenyatta corrected from Danaus's other side. "When was the last time you slept, my student?" Genji winced at the reproach in the words and turned his face away so he did not have to see the way both Danaus and Zenyatta stared at him expectantly.

"I was sleeping when Athena alerted me to your arrival," he said, trying and failing not to let his words sound sullen. "Which I am not going to complain about. Having you here, safe, is more important than a few hours of unquiet slumber."

"And the time before that?" Danaus prompted. "Was it before or after London?"

Genji shook his head. "There was no time to waste. It doesn't matter anyway. We will all get rest now, and you can berate me for my inability to sleep when you've been kidnapped later."

They completed the walk to the Strike Commander's quarters in silence, though it was not as awkward as Genji feared it might have been. As they approached, Athena opened the doors for them so they could pass unimpeded into the territory that had once been assigned to Jack Morrison.

The rooms were largely unchanged from the last time Genji had been here. Morrison had been calling him to task for some disciplinary issue before the end, though Genji couldn't recall the details. There'd been so many issues in those tumultuous years between Hanzo's attempted murder and finding himself in Nepal that it was difficult to remember specifics. It had probably been something inconsequential, anyway. Probably some foolish need to assert his masculinity in the wake of losing most of his body.

The front office was furnished to be austere but not uninviting: the desk, chairs, and light fixtures were all finished in brushed chrome, but there were several concessions to comfort. A potted plant still grew in one corner (probably under Winston's gentle care), and a sumptuous-looking leather sofa had been installed along one wall after Reinhardt had complained about the lack of comfortable furniture.

Genji's familiarity with the quarters ended there. He'd never been invited to socialize with Morrison, and he'd never wanted to. It came as a surprise when they shuffled further into the suite and found that it, too, had likely not been touched since Overwatch—the original Overwatch—had been disbanded. The walls were festooned in photographs of the team members (individually or together) and news clippings reporting on commendations or editorial interviews. A large bed occupied one corner, and another sofa had been shoved up against the far wall.

Thankfully, Athena had had the foresight to either turn on the heat before the three of them had arrived, or she had kept the climate control on in the hopes that someone would use the rooms.

"So this is ours for the time being," Zenyatta said, humming thoughtfully. He disengaged himself from Danaus's side and strode to the bed to run his hands over the comforter. "I believe you should find this quite comfortable, Danaus."

Genji shouldered the rest of Danaus's weight and guided him to the bed. Between him and Zenyatta, they arranged Danaus under the covers. He was curled up asleep in the far corner of the bed as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"What about you, Master?" Genji whispered. "Where will you complete your recharging cycle?"

"I will recharge here, my student." Zenyatta gestured to the ground beside the bed. "Danaus and I have found it is better to rest within easy reach of each other. It offers us both some comfort."

The urge to ask  _ what happened _ was so strong that the words almost escaped before Genji had a chance to stop himself. But he remembered so clearly the way that Zenyatta had given him space when he'd first found himself in Nepal. Instead, he reached out and laid a hand on one of Zenyatta's. It was cool to the touch, the metal made smooth again through the work of Mercy's biotics. His thumb ran over Zenyatta's knuckles in an absent motion.

"It would make me rest easier knowing that you are somewhere more comfortable than the floor." He studiously kept his gaze on Zenyatta's hand as he said it. It felt wrong somehow for him to make demands on his master when he hadn't even been back for more than a few hours.

Zenyatta's hand twisted in his grip so that he could squeeze Genji's fingers. "Then what of you, my student? Where will you sleep?" When Genji neither raised his gaze nor responded, Zenyatta continued, "It would soothe both Danaus and myself to know that  _ you _ are resting comfortably."

"I am fine," Genji said. "I got some sleep before you arrived. Or, if you like, I can stay on the couch."

"That's nonsense," said Zenyatta. "This bed is quite large enough for more than one person. I do not need much space, and neither, it seems, does Danaus." He released Genji's hand and shifted over so that he was reclining with his back resting against the headboard. There was, in fact, almost as much space between him and his double as Genji would have had in his own single bunk.

Even though Zenyatta's face could not have changed, Genji could tell from the set of his shoulders and the tilt of his head that Zenyatta knew he'd won the argument. Rather than responding, Genji stood and began to divest himself of his weapons. After a moment of hesitation, he leaned them against the wall beside Zenyatta, then unlatched his faceplate and set it down as well.

As he settled himself between his master and his master's copy, he thought for just a heartbeat that he heard Zenyatta humming. But he was already asleep before he could think to examine it further.

*

Without his visor, Genji had no way to read his internal chronometer when he woke, but the quality of the light gave him a decent enough guess (morning, probably near 0900). Sometime during the night, they had all shifted subtly toward each other so that Genji's cheek rested against the cool metal of Zenyatta's hip joint and Danaus's face was buried against Genji's side as if trying to hide behind him.

"Did you rest well, my student?" Zenyatta asked, pitching his voice low so as not to disturb the remaining sleeper. There was a teasing quality to his words that made Genji's face heat up with mild embarrassment at his position. Embarrassment turned to mortification when Genji realized he'd been drooling on Zenyatta in his sleep.

"Um," he said inelegantly as he tried to push himself into more of a sitting position and discreetly wipe his mouth while not disturbing Danaus. He failed at the latter two, which drew a warm chuckle from his master. For his part, Danaus made an indignant grumble, threw an arm across Genji's midsection, and tried to burrow deeper under the covers. Of course, this only amused Zenyatta further, and the chuckle grew quickly to full-on laughter.

Genji groaned and reached for a pillow to either hide his shame or smother himself—he hadn't decided which yet.

"Peace, Genji," said Zenyatta as his laughter subsided. "Forgive me, I am just… tickled to share such a quiet, unguarded moment with you."

"You are so cruel." But his words held no venom. In truth, he could not think of a better way to wake up—knowing that Zenyatta was safe at his side—and he  _ had _ found the sleep more than adequate. More carefully, Genji shifted to try to get out from under Danaus's arm. "I take it your recharge cycle was restful, then?"

"More than. I am relieved to once again be in your company." Zenyatta inclined his head toward Danaus. "I imagine he is equally relieved. This is his first chance to see you, and the first time he has been able to truly rest."

Unfortunately, Genji's efforts were for naught. With another mumbled protest, the bed's remaining occupant rolled onto his side and propped himself up on one elbow. He glanced around blearily, his eyes obviously trying to focus on what was in front of him with very little luck. Half of his face had pink marks from where he'd pressed it to the grooves of Genji's cybernetic augments, and what little hair he had was squished flat against his scalp on one side and stood straight up on the other. "Muh?"

"It's okay," murmured Genji, utterly disarmed. "You are safe with Zenyatta and myself at Watchpoint: Gibraltar."

Danaus blinked up at him, then at Zenyatta. "I am very sorry," he said. "I am not used to the needs of this body. Did I sleep for too long?"

"No, Ma—Danaus," Genji caught himself but felt himself flushing at the mistake. "Most people will sleep for six-to-ten hours a night. I believe you have only slept for a little more than six."

"Ah. That is good, then." Danaus let himself fall back onto the bed. "It was the first opportunity I've had to complete a full sleep cycle. Should we notify Dr. Ziegler that I am not abnormal?"

"I expect Dr. Ziegler will notify us when she requires our presence, my brother," said Zenyatta. "There is no need to disturb her with our observations before then."

As if on cue, the terminal on the far wall chimed. Athena's icon flashed in rhythmic time to the sound. Genji groaned again. "Yes, Athena?"

"Agent Genji, Agent Zenyatta, Danaus. Your presence is requested in Winston's lab. Agent Mercy would like to perform further examination. Also, I have been informed to inquire if Danaus has eaten recently?"

"The last time I consumed nutrients was perhaps this time yesterday," Danaus said.

"We were distracted with other matters," added Zenyatta.

"I will notify Winston to ensure breakfast is available to you." Her icon disappeared.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo this year because I've spent the past couple of months getting my original manuscript ready to turn in, I do plan on spending most of November playing video games (*coughoverwatchcough*) and working on fanfic. :P

The air was only slightly warmer than it had been the night before. Zenyatta had chosen to go back to his quarters to put on proper clothing, leaving Genji to escort Danaus to Winston's lab. He snagged a blanket off the bed to bundle up his charge before leading him out of their temporary quarters.

The atmosphere of Winston's lab was still frenetic when they entered, but it was tempered with a cheer that had been sucked out of Genji's world since London. Winston and Angela conversed next to one of Athena's consoles, both looking like they'd gotten several hours of uninterrupted sleep. Jesse hovered next to the coffeemaker, laying out some pastries on plates, while Lena bolted toward them as soon as she saw them enter.

"I took some liberties," she said, "and I requisitioned some clothes for you, love!" She shoved a bundle of cloth at Danaus, who took it more out of reflex than any sort of conscious decision. "Got a couple of sizes there, so just see what fits."

"Ah, thank you Miss Oxton," Danaus said. "I will try these on once Dr. Ziegler and Winston have completed their tests."

"Oh, don't sweat it, love. And I don't mind if you call me Lena like Zenyatta does." She flashed him a warm smile before turning to Genji. "Where  _ is _ our metal friend, anyway?"

"He needed clothing as well, but he has some in his quarters unlike our guest." Genji shrugged. "I imagine he will join us shortly."

"That's all right," Angela called, "we can begin with Danaus's examination first, since he's already here." She motioned toward the coffeemaker, where Jesse had finished laying out his spread. "Please, help yourself to some breakfast and join us."

Danaus bowed his head briefly and tucked the bundle of clothing under one arm so that he would have a free hand to eat with.

Jesse tipped his hat as Danaus passed him. "Here, partner, lemme take that offa your hands." He traded the clothes for a steaming mug of coffee and a small plate with a couple of toasted bagels. "Y'all give that a try and see how y'feel."

"Thank you, Mr. McCree," Danaus said with another dip of his head.

"Aww, shucks, didn't y'hear Lena? We're all friends here, right? Just call me McCree."

" _ Mr. McCree, Miss Oxton _ ," Danaus said, putting particular emphasis on the  _ mister _ and  _ miss _ , "I appreciate what you are trying to do, really I do. But the only way I will be able to adjust to life as something other than a copy of my brother made by unsavory forces is if you treat me as if I am not, in fact, Tekhartha Zenyatta." His face grew red as he spoke, and Genji could make out a fine tremor building in the hand that held the coffee mug.

Sensing that this could only end in disaster, Genji darted forward and extricated the mug and plate from Danaus's shaking fingers. The man who was not, in fact, Tekhartha Zenyatta blinked owlishly at him with wide, dark eyes. He gawped at Genji for a moment before he mumbled a quick, "I apologize."

"Naw, you're right," said Jesse with an easy smile. "So, that bein' the case, you can call me McCree—no 'mister'—if I can call you Dan. Sound fair?"

Danaus opened his mouth to respond, but it snapped shut when Soldier: 76's voice bellowed through the lab: "What in the  _ hell _ are you doing, agents?"

Jesse, Lena, and Genji went rigid out of sheer Pavlovian conditioning. The man may not be Strike Commander Morrison in any meaningful sense, but his voice still held the weight of that authority for those who'd once been under his command. Soldier: 76 stood with his arms crossed over his chest and his visor glowing an angry red at the main entrance to Winston's lab. At his side, looking chagrined, stood Zenyatta.

"Ah, Soldier, good morning!" said Angela, stubbornly unflappable in the face of 76's irritation. "Would you like to observe the proceedings, or did you just come for breakfast?  _ Speaking of which _ , Danaus, please, eat."

"Ziegler, I appreciate your need to take care of every stray that traipses through—" 76 angled his gaze at Genji. Behind his faceplate, Genji felt his lips curling into a sneer. "—But this is ridiculous! It's obvious this is a setup!" He waved one hand toward Zenyatta and the other at Danaus. "Agent Zenyatta has been compromised, and you just let him waltz in here with something that  _ claims _ to have a duplicate copy of his consciousness? This doesn't sound at all suspicious to you? You're feeding it  _ breakfast _ , for Christ's sake!"

The sneer dropped off of Genji's face, replaced with the cold placidity that took him when he readied himself to strike. He held himself as still as he could so he didn't go for his swords or ready a volley of shuriken.  _ God! How can he be so callous? _ The combination of the blatant disregard for the people under Overwatch's care combined with the blatant disregard for someone else's command was both so unlike the man formerly known as Jack Morrison and also so _ like him _ that it made Genji's palms itch to wring his neck.

Thankfully, before Genji could say or do something he and 76 would regret, Winston stepped forward. He pressed his lips into a thin line. "This wasn't Angela's call, Soldier," he said. "I made the decision to take Zenyatta and Danaus to the infirmary, and I made the decision to let them stay here as  _ guests _ and not prisoners. I left them under Genji's watch, and I asked Angela to take the lead on examining them further because I think we  _ all _ understand the risks of an agent being held by hostile entities unknown."

It was such a specific way to phrase it that Genji almost lost his focus on 76. It had to be some sort of jab, but if it had any effect on the soldier, he gave no outward sign.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, son," 76 said, voice gruff, "but I don't agree with you."

"I'm doing what I think is best for Overwatch." Winston drew his shoulders back, straightened his spine. "You don't have to agree with me, but you do have to respect my command if—if you wish to continue serving with Overwatch." He huffed out a breath and continued, "It's not in anyone's interests for us to treat our agents and our refugees with the utmost care and respect."

Someone let out a low whistle. Though Genji wasn't looking that direction (his visor was still aimed balefully in 76's direction), he guessed it must've been Jesse.

Tense moments trickled by. No one moved. No one spoke.

Finally, 76 shook his head. "I'll be on the firing range if you need me." He shouldered past Zenyatta on his way out of the lab. It wasn't a concession of victory, exactly, but he had at least chosen not to further challenge Winston's authority. Which was something, Genji supposed.

Winston's shoulders slumped. "Sorry about that," he said, possibly to Danaus and Zenyatta, possibly to no one in particular. Lena dashed to his side, rested a hand on his shoulder, said something in hushed tones that only he was meant to hear.

"It was not your fault, Winston," said Zenyatta finally. "I was perhaps less than circumspect when I encountered our Soldier friend on my way back here."

"Master, don't be ridiculous. 76 is his own man and makes his own judgements with or without your help." Genji turned back to Danaus. "Please, eat this," he said, holding out the bagels and coffee. Danaus took them without a word.

*

In retrospect, Genji realized that watching Danaus try to eat was possibly  _ the most adorable thing _ . His fingers gripped the first bagel clumsily and he eyed it with obvious suspicion as he raised it toward his mouth. Genji heard him mumble under his breath, "Zenyatta has seen his friends eat this many times. I can do this." It took more than a little bit of Genji's self-control to keep from chuckling when Danaus screwed his eyes shut and held his breath to take a bite.

"It might go better if you look at what you are doing," he said in lieu of laughing. Was it mean to be so amused by Danaus's confusion? Maybe a little bit, but Genji couldn't help but smile behind his faceplate, where no one else could see. "Haven't you eaten before?"

Danaus shook his head. "I was given a nutrient slurry, but have not yet tried my hand at solid foods." He opened his eyes and glowered at the bagel. "How does one eat without biting off one's own tongue?"

"Hmm, that is something most people learn very, very young." Genji gestured at the coffee mug resting on the table next to them. "If you prefer, start with this?" It was likely not high in nutrients, but Genji knew how Jesse tended to make his coffee, so it would be at least somewhat like a slurry.

"Ah, yes," said Danaus, eagerly setting aside the bagel in favor of the mug. "That is a wonderful idea." He cupped it between both of his hands for a few moments, seeming to savor the feeling of the warmth, before he lifted it to his lips.

Genji watched, fascinated, as Danaus took his first sip of coffee. A series of complicated expressions washed over Danaus's features in quick succession: confusion, discomfort, confusion, sadness, disgust. By the time he'd swallowed the liquid, Danaus's face was twisted into something that might have been carved by a surrealist sculptor. He set the mug aside. "I feel that I now understand a great deal more about McCree's character."

"The man has no tastebuds," agreed Angela without glancing up from her diagnostic work.

"Whoa now, I'm startin' to feel personally attacked here," Jesse said, but he wore a rakish sort of smile nonetheless. Angela hummed noncommittally, returning her full attention to the work in front of her.

Danaus responded instead, "My apologies. I do not mean to  _ attack _ you, just… express concern for the sort of individual who drinks this recreationally." A sliver of a smile crept over Danaus's lips as he spoke, startling a chuckle from Genji. The sound seemed to encourage him, and soon the smile had grown into an impish grin.

Genji's heart tripped over itself in that moment, and he had to clear his throat before he spoke again. "Ah, um, Angela? What are the chances of getting Danaus some liquid dietary supplements until he can work out solids?"

"You ask that like I do not have every intention of seeing to the nutritional support of all agents and guests of Overwatch," Angela teased. "Still, I would appreciate it if he at least  _ tried _ to eat a bagel."

She turned her attention back to Zenyatta. "Now then, I think I have all of the physical data I need, but Soldier had a point. There could very easily be malicious code your captors implanted when they were scanning you to create Danaus. Would you be willing to interface with Athena to check your higher processing systems?"

"Yes, of course."

Next to Genji, Danaus disconsolately picked up the bagel once more.

Slowly, agonizingly, Danaus made his way through an entire bagel and a glass of orange juice that Lena swapped for his abandoned coffee. By the time Angela had finished with Zenyatta, Danaus was glaring at the remaining bagel on his plate. The relief that washed over his features when Angela beckoned him to her diagnostic equipment would have been comical if it didn't indicate potential serious issues with food later.

As Zenyatta passed him, he laid a gentle hand on Danaus's shoulder. They exchanged a glance, then Zenyatta joined Genji once more.

"What does Angela think?" Genji asked him, pitching his voice low.

"It is too soon to say. There is much to analyze. However, Athena's heuristic scans are fairly certain that no foreign malicious code has been injected into my systems." He tilted his head, his equivalent of a smile. "I imagine the more interesting results will come from my brother. Whatever techniques went into his creation are certainly remarkable."

Genji made a vague hum in response. While his master was correct, he couldn't find it in himself to feel any sort of wonder about it. At best, whoever had done this had created a person who had to strive to reinvent himself in order to get by in a world he both knew intimately and had never seen before. At worst (as much as he wanted to disagree with Soldier: 76), they had created a ticking time bomb.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Between getting the edits done for my book and falling face first into The Adventure Zone fandom, I blew through my buffer, so updates may be a little more spread out. However, I'm not giving up on this thing!

With her tests done, Angela released Zenyatta and Danaus pending the results of her, Athena's, and Winston's analysis. Zenyatta seemed eager to return to his personal quarters with Danaus for the time being, and Genji felt obligated to follow given the exchange between Winston and 76. Danaus brought the armful of scavenged clothing with him.

"Thank you for indulging me, brother," Zenyatta said as they picked their way back across the Watchpoint grounds.

"It is hardly indulgence," said Danaus with a shake of his head. "I am curious, too."

"Now  _ I _ am curious," Genji said. "What are you talking about?"

"I was stripped of my Omnic orbs when I was taken," Zenyatta said, "but that set was not the only set I created. There was always the chance that they might be lost or damaged in combat, and I have kept several spares just in case. The curiosity, though, is whether or not Danaus may use them as I do. He recalls their creation, and he has many memories of using them to channel Omnic energy. But will they respond to him?"

"It will be an interesting experiment," said Danaus. His words were calm, but his expression betrayed his nervousness. A side-effect, Genji thought, of only having a face for a very short time. 

"What makes it so interesting?"

"They are keyed to my consciousness," said Zenyatta. "It's how they assist me in my transcendence. It will be an interesting exercise in how the Iris views Danaus's being. Even if they do not respond to him, I am certain we can craft some that will."

Zenyatta's quarters were smaller even than Genji's sparse living area, so it felt claustrophobic with all three of them crammed inside. Both Danaus and Genji settled on the futon tucked against one wall while Zenyatta retrieved a plain wooden box from the storage locker opposite it. 

Inside the box, swaddled in a sumptuous burgundy fabric, sat several fist-sized orbs like the ones Zenyatta had lost. He presented the box to Danaus, who drew an orb from it and cradled the metallic thing between both of his hands.

Danaus rolled the orb from one hand to the other in a gesture that Genji realized was born of nerves. His brows had knit together and his lips were pressed into a thin line as he watched the light play across its gleaming surface.

"Whatever happens, this will change nothing," Zenyatta said, very gently. He withdrew the remaining Omnic orbs from the box and laid them out around himself in a loose circle before he sat in the lotus position in their center.

"What would be worse?" Danaus's words hitched in his throat. "Would it be more hateful to try to reach the Iris and have it reject me? Or would it be worse to have it welcome me exactly as it does you and then know that I must pretend we are not the same?"

"You know the answer to that," Zenyatta said in a tone that was so incredibly kind. It was the tone he had used to calm Genji's own turmoil time and again.

Danaus laughed, a sound that was sharp and bitter and utterly unlike anything Genji had ever heard from his master (though he certainly couldn't fault Danaus for it). "Yes. I do." He shook his head and took a breath. When he had released it, his features had smoothed out into a semblance of calm contemplation.

They all sat in silence that stretched for several minutes as Danaus focused himself.

The orb in his hands failed to do anything other than remain inert.

Danaus opened his eyes. His face was a battleground of conflicting emotions as he handed the orb back to Zenyatta. Raw hurt warred with relief and resignation and disappointment and hope. "I see. Thank you for letting me try, brother." A strange warmth tinged the familial term.

Zenyatta took the orb and set it in the circle around him. "I am certain that we can request the materials we will need to craft your own set, brother." Here, too, Genji heard warmth and relief.

They lapsed into silence again for a handful of heartbeats which stretched further and further until the moment felt like a tight and tenuous filament strung between them. Genji glanced between them in mounting confusion which he saw reflected in Danaus's expression and the set of Zenyatta's shoulders.  Slowly, agonizingly, realization dawned on Genji as he understood exactly what he was witnessing.

Danaus was not able to use the Omnic orbs that Zenyatta had created, but it appeared now that neither could Zenyatta.

It was Danaus's voice to cut through the tension. "I do not understand."

"Neither do I." Zenyatta used one hand to scoop up the inert metallic orbs. "This is. Unexpected." His voice wavered, making him sound small. Lost. His fingers ran over each of them as he deposited them back in their box.

"Perhaps this test is not as meaningful as either of us had hoped," Danaus offered meekly. The pain of the suggestion was written clearly in his bowed head and drooping shoulders.

Genji couldn't take the mounting anguish between the two of them. "Master, if I may?"

In eerie unison, both Danaus and Zenyatta replied, "Yes, of course," before Danaus ducked his head in chagrin. It would have been endearing if the circumstances hadn't been what they were.

Instead of acknowledging the slip-up and possibly making Danaus feel worse, Genji pressed on. "You've been through a traumatic experience. Both of you have. It's not unreasonable for something that relies on your strong sense of self to be difficult now. Believe me, I should know. When Angela rebuilt me, it was ages before I could connect with my spirit dragon again. Through  _ your _ help. And before that…" He paused, aware of how both of his companions regarded him with their full attention. "Before that, she would not even respond to me until I acknowledged that I was not a girl, but rather a man. So it seems reasonable that your experiences of this trauma and the sudden questions of your sense of self would make things difficult."

"There is certainly wisdom to this advice," Danaus said, though his back did not straighten. "You are correct, this is a very difficult situation in which to know oneself, especially when our very beings have been tampered with."

"Yes," Zenyatta said. If he'd planned to say anything else in his agreement, however, he was cut off by Athena's icon appearing on the terminal in the wall.

"Agent Genji, Agent Zenyatta, Danaus," she said without preamble, "Winston has requested your presence for debriefing at your earliest convenience."

"Now is convenient," Zenyatta said.

"Very well. Agent Genji, please escort them both to conference block A202." Her icon winked out.

*

Conference block A202 was near the mess, and it would have been difficult to reach it without running into other agents back in the old days. With the Watchpoint so understaffed now, though, the only soul they passed was Soldier: 76, who stood in a stiff parody of rest outside the conference block's door. He stalked away as soon as he caught sight of them.

Winston poked his head out of the door. "Ah, good, yes, thank you all for coming. Could I speak with Zenyatta first?"

"I will wait here until it is my turn," Danaus said.

"Ah, actually, I think Angela would like to have a word with you." Winston ducked his head sheepishly. "She wanted to go over nutritional intake with you in the mess hall. We can get you when we're ready."

"Ah." His posture was awkward. Unsure. He glanced briefly at Genji, then away. "All right. I will meet with her."

"Would you like me to go with you?" Genji surprised both himself and Danaus by asking, based on the way Danaus froze. "I'm sure you know the way," Genji continued, "but would you like the company?"

"Ah, no, I will be fine," Danaus said with a slow shake of his head. "Stay with my brother and come get me when you are done." He sketched a wave at Winston before turning toward the mess hall.

Winston held the door to the conference block open. "After you?"

*

Genji leaned against the door, arms crossed over his chest. It wouldn't prevent 76 from barging in if he were truly intent on it, but it went a long way toward making his own position clear: no one  else was welcome in this interview. Behind his visor, Genji kept his eyes fixed on Zenyatta. His master sat in a chair with his hands resting lightly on his knee joints and his head tilted down as if deep in meditation. It was difficult to tell at a glance, though, without the gentle chiming of his Omnic orbs.

Across from him, Winston perched almost comically in a chair about three sizes too small for his body mass. In one hand, he held a datapad on which he was presumably going to take notes. He adjusted his glasses. "Thank you for agreeing to this, Agent Zenyatta," he said. "Do you mind if I record audio of this?"

Zenyatta's head tilted back up. "I do not mind. Whatever will make the proceedings easier for you."

Winston thumbed an icon on the tablet and set it face-up on the squat table between them. "Thanks. So, just to set some expectations here, this is  _ not _ an interrogation. I just want to understand what happened so we can defend ourselves in the future, and maybe stop whoever did this from acting again." He adjusted his glasses again. Whatever he had to say next, it made him uncomfortable. "I, er, wanted to give you and your—Danaus some time to decompress, but… Well, I think you can appreciate our position."

"Of course," said Zenyatta mildly. It made Genji realize how heavily he depended on the state of Zenyatta's Omnic orbs to read his mood now that he had no such insight. He shifted against the door, a movement borne out of agitation rather than discomfort. "Where should we begin?"

"Oh, er, at the beginning, I think. What was the last thing you remember from London?"

Zenyatta nodded. "I recall very little after Genji gained entrance to the target, but I am unsure if that is due to intentional tampering on the part of our captors or if it was a side effect of the means I was… disabled." He paused, considering his words. "What I recall next is jumbled. I believe I was deactivated for two days, and by then they had already." Rather than trailing off, the sentence ended in a full stop. One hand waved vaguely at his temporary cranial plating. The fact that he could not say anything more on the matter spoke volumes. It took every ounce of Genji's self-control not to dash to Zenyatta's side, take his hands, and reaffirm  _ you are safe, I am here, I will not let anything happen to you again _ .

His master continued, "Danaus was there. They had brought him to the room they kept me in before my systems were reactivated. We were underground. They left us largely alone, except for when they brought sustenance for Danaus. Over the course of a week, perhaps more, I recall we were visited only a few times beyond that."

The conversation (if that was even the right word for it) lulled, and in that silence, Winston asked, "Did you overhear anything when they visited you? What were they doing other than feeding Danaus?" Genji felt a burst of fondness for him, then, when he did not challenge Zenyatta's assertions about the time frame. They already knew his memory had been tampered with. What was the point in calling attention to it now?

Zenyatta nodded, the movement slow and jerky. "They spoke often about the work they were doing. The justification. I can tell you that the name 'Janus' was mentioned on multiple occasions. I believe he, she, or they are the leader of some sort of cult. Our captors were… fanatical, to say the least."

He stopped. His hands clenched and unclenched on his knees. Genji recognized the tells: Zenyatta must have been using one of the techniques he'd taught Genji to still his mind. "Master, are you—do you need anything?" The words were out before Genji could stop them.

Again, Zenyatta shook his head. "I apologize. It is a little difficult to reflect on what happened and gather my thoughts. Though…" He hesitated. "I would welcome your presence if you chose to take a seat next to me."

Genji pulled another chair alongside Zenyatta's and slid into it without a sound. Perhaps it was selfish of him, but he made sure that he sat close enough that he could lean over just a hair and have his shoulder resting against his master's. Before he could take that liberty, though, Zenyatta leaned into him instead.

He couldn't begin to enumerate how often he had learned on Zenyatta for support in his darkest days. More often than not, Genji hadn't even given conscious thought to the action, just reached out to grip Zenyatta's hand or rested his head on Zenyatta's shoulder with little warning. To be on the other side of it was disconcerting, to say the least.

Without looking down, Genji let his fingers find Zenyatta's and curl around them.

Finally, Zenyatta spoke again. "It seemed that Danaus had been created for the purpose of testing sympathetic reactions between two beings with similar minds. They took great care not to inflict serious damage but it was." He stopped. His fingers tightened around Genji's. "Uncomfortable. Neither of us was given time to recover or complete a rest cycle after."

The bruises and lacerations and gouges in metal plating made far more sense. Genji's stomach lurched.

Into the yawning silence that followed, Winston offered a subject change. "How did you and Danaus escape? Where were they holding you?"

"I am not sure that 'escape' is the correct word," Zenyatta said, head bowed. "After several days, we found that we were alone and the doors were all unlocked. We emerged from an abandoned bunker not far from Seville."

Winston scowled. "In our own backyard."

"So it would seem. And the rest you know." Zenyatta's shoulders slumped, as if the telling had robbed him of all his energy. "I am sorry, Winston, but there is nothing else I know."

"It's more than we had before," Winston said, adjusting his glasses again. "Janus, huh? You said that was the name of their cult leader?"

Zenyatta nodded. "Yes. The people who held us were very clear on that point. Everything they did was to serve Janus. Through their work, Janus would divine the means to deliver us all."

"A doomsday cult?" Winston pressed.

"No, I do not believe so," said Zenyatta. His voice sounded tired. Defeated. "From what I overheard, they believed that Janus could unite Omnics and humans under one ruler. How this relates to—" He stopped.

"I apologize, Winston," Genji cut in, "but I think that my master needs to return to our temporary quarters."

Rather than object, Zenyatta just nodded. "Yes. I think I would benefit from an extended meditation. Thank you, my student."

Winston blinked at them both in surprise, as if he hadn't noticed the way Zenyatta was reacting to the questions. "Oh! Er. Yes. Right." He turned off the audio recording. "Thank you for your time, Zenyatta. I'll go get Danaus, now."

"I can bring him to you once I've gotten Master Zenyatta settled," Genji said. The idea of Danaus facing this line of questioning alone seemed too cruel.

*

Danaus sat in the same chair as Zenyatta had, in largely the same position, but his expression betrayed exactly how unmoored he was feeling. It tore at Genji's heart to see the distress written so plainly. He didn't bother trying to stand off to the side this time, instead choosing to seat himself within easy reach of Danaus—close enough that their knees could touch if neither of them were holding themselves so carefully. Much like his master had, Danaus began the interview with his head bowed as if in meditation, but his face gave away the turmoil obviously rolling through his mind.

Like the first time, Winston set the datapad on the table between them. "Thank you for your time, Danaus. I understand this is very difficult for you, but I am sure that with yours and Zenyatta's help, we'll be able to get to the bottom of this. Do you mind if I set up an audio recording?"

Danaus did not look up before shaking his head. "I do not mind, Winston. Please, let's just get started."

Genji left his hands resting palm-up in his lap. It was as close as he could come to an invitation without drawing attention to Danaus's inability to hide his blatant discomfort.

Winston cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "Yes, right. Sorry. I'll try to keep this as brief as I can. What was the last thing you remember about the operation in London?"

The interview followed such a similar script as the last one that it was almost eerie. Danaus's answers, unsurprisingly, were almost exactly the same as Zenyatta's, though they were made worse by how clearly pained Danaus was by speaking about his experiences. As upset as he became, though, he never let himself accept Genji's offer of support.

Finally, Winston turned off the audio recording and rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palm. "I appreciate everything you've given me today, Danaus. I'm sorry to have to ask this of you, but I think it would be best if we could do another session. Later, of course, but… soon, if we can manage it."

Danaus nodded as if he expected it. "Yes, of course. Anything I can do to help."

"All right. I want to make some arrangements to maybe get you and Zenyatta interfaced with Athena a little more directly," Winston said. "Go get some rest. Hopefully Mercy and Athena can get you some general clearance when their scans' results are back."


End file.
